Should Africa do more to combat sex trafficking within the continent?

Sex trafficking offenses are common across the globe and singling Nigeria and Africa may not be in perspective as reflected by Craigslist saga in America. It may be true the African countries have not put in place infrastructure to fight the vice, it is my contention that all individual and corporate citizens have a social responibility to restore justice lost.
We need serious civic education on dealing with the vice by enacting strong punitive measures and creating infrstructure for its enforcement.

Is it lack of job that makes people enter into that act or it's an issue of unemployment?
we understand that in Africa and the world as a whole, unemployment is a problem but if individually you are not ready to have an affair with anyone you should refrain from the act because I see it as an agreement between two parties so if from the bottom of your heart you are trafficked in the sex issue,the victim can file that in the law court and the necessary steps will be taken because sex trafficking is quite pathetic!

Please Nigerian women, you better try a little bit harder to respect yourselves. Everywhere in Africa, Europe, America, even in Asia. when ever discusing about sex slave (protitution) one will not finish that topic without mensuring NIGERIAN WOMENS.
Allways Nigeria, the very Nigeria, the same Nigeria. Its as if Sex Academies are the only ones that exist in Nigera for girls/womens
I live in Germany, I can assured you that 8 to 9 out of 10 black bordels (prostitutes) in Germany are Nigerian womens. To prove that BBC, you can come over and prove that yourself.
One thing I would like Nigerian womens to understand, is that, money is good, but money is not everything. Nigeria is not the only poor country in Africa, but women from other countries in Africa does not embraced that job like the way Nigerians womens do embraced it. BBC, this is a very important topic that you came up with. Nigerian women are really poluting the air with their international professional prostutional trade habit, Good Luck Johnatan please try to adress this matter with vigur in your country, Nigeria. If not your citizens girls/womens has really gone out of hand. my first advice to you Mr. president, start immediately by first of all closeing all Sex Academies in Nigeria, if there are any, etc.

Though some may say that money speaks and that when put on the table, the color is the same.This is the idea that put may into dirty social activities like this. Infact over 90 percent of these these girls always regret later.Th e tendecy is always to have cash abroard and seeek for fame back home.In my opinion,better eduation and counseling can be one of the ways to eradicate this act.I know that these girls always sit in particular spots, so the police should do all to close up all these places and those who promote these acts be brought to justice.Again, African parents should not cease from monitoring their children even at the 50th year.

Human/sex trafficking is a dysphemism for crippling poverty that forces people and particularly women to become victims of a situation. Since it has been established that women are "lured" and "part with significant amounts of money" unknowingly to be forced into sex trade, the solution to the problem would be to make conditions at home accommodating through provisions of jobs and basic amenities.
Sex tourism seems to gaining ground in Kenya (judging by how often it hits the media) and from it one cannot rule out sex trafficking - simple rule of demand and supply!
Unfortunately I dont think the government is doing enough to deter the vice and their action usually seems to come after the fact.
I may not know any person who has been affected by this problem but it seems to be only a matter of time if governments in Africa and particularly my government does not come up with strict legislations to deter the vice.
Yes, I agree that Jude that the issue does not seem to have been given the attention it deserve and there might be more than meets the eye.

Africa of the past and present see prostitution as a taboo.With that it is not freely discussed.Moreso,we can not pretend that sex trafficking is a new thing to us.We see and hear people talk about it everyday.But what really is the problem here?I belief extreme poverty and hunger can better explain.so were we to improve our living standards,I belief it will go a long way to reduce it.This is at the international level.But when looked at the local level we see that it still happens when young girls are taken from their villages to towns by those traffickers with pretext of sending them to school and getting them learn trades.But when they get to those towns,they are instead taken to brothels to work as commercial sex workers.Naive as they usually are,they stay quiet and do it for fear of being send back to the village.And they get to talk about it only when they can hardly do anything about it.
To reduce or stop this,i belief the state should arrange regular patrol at street corners to track these dealers in sex every evenings.They should also do investigations and eventually close down these brothels that pass for hotels and their propietors charge to court.And last but not the least,if this has not been criminalised in any African country,they should do it now or they should do analogical interpretation of the existing laws so as to punish culprits.


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I completely agree with Jude! This is a very serious issue that is not taken seriously. Africans living especially in overseas take advantage of poor vulnerable people back home for their selfish ends. People are not only trafficked to work as prostitutes, but in other aspects such as baby sitters, cooks etc. Traffickers take advantage of their ignorance to enslave these people. I have seen instances of this a lot back home in Sierra Leone.
I think more should be done to combat these issues. People should be sensitise about abroad and these traffickers. I also believe the notion that coming abroad is almost equal to succeeding in life should be discouraged in Africa. Governments should look into this very seriously and act fast. My take

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I think the problem with sex trafficking on the continent is largely because of the lack of social structures of most African countries. women are lured abroad with promises of good jobs and part with significant amounts of money.In the absence of social structure and the high level of poverty on the continent,traffickers uses false promises of good job and better prospect in life to accomplish their objective, for example, as long as nurses continue to earn about $20 a month in most of this countries,some women will always jump to the promise of $50 a month and good living condition for semilar job in another country.

I think Africa needs to do more in combating trafficking by emphasizing the issue of education. The education about the west being the best place to be is more than the education of self reliance. Educators teach about the good life of the west and that is the only reason why young Africans want to go to the west. The best we can do in Africa is to disabuse the mind of the young people, especially females, that life can be good in Africa if you prepare yourself.

Funny how so many times people look for someone or something to blaim for their misfortune. I agree that little attention has been given to this matter but at the same time want to say that these young women and men who at times have fallen victims to this trend, it is because they care less to research on the people who take advantage of them. I feel people should seriouslu study thes organisations which often offer jobs. A person in seriously wanting to be employeed must honestly take care to understand and study his/her employer,take time to know who or what is employing you.Therefore you have no one to blaim for the trouble you get yourself in.

The blame of sex trafficking should be laid squarely at the feet of our leaders in Africa.Take for example my country Liberia where we designed beautiful women programs and sell it to the international community to accumulate huge sums just to land it in our pockets while the beneficiaries go about in the streets only to land as prey in the hands of people who will promise them fat jobs and good life but later to see that they are victims which they have little or no choice but to succumb.

Jude is definitely right as regards the situation in Africa, however, his comments apply to the world in general. This vicious and degrading trafficking appears to be endemic today with high activity in places like Kosovo & the Balkans, the Baltic states as well as Europe, Asia and the Americas. I don't think the autorities are devoting enough energy and resources to combatting this modern day slavery and depravity.

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With good legislation, African governments can stop human trafficking because this is the problem. However, nobody can stop prostitution even if armed with an atomic bomb. It is the oldest profession and has a role to play in the society. Even though poverty is the main driving force to the vice in Africa, I wonder why we still find prostitutes even in developed countries.

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Thank everybody for your comments on this issue. Human Trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transfering, harbouring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion, fraud, deception or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad.

Human Trafficking is the world’s fastest growing illegal trade. It is the fastest-growing source of profit for organized crime.

The factors that push people to become victims of human trafficking include among others, unemployment, poverty, lack of education and ignorance. These factors are still very prevalent in most parts of Africa. Trafficker are taking advantage of the aforementioned factors, free flow of information made possible by ICTs, and free movement of people within the sub-regions and the continent of Africa, to traffic people especially women and children within the continent and across, into sexual and labour exploitation.

Some African countries have signed or ratified the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/signatures.html . There is an urgent need for them to sign and ratify. Some of those that have signed and ratified have not domesticated it, by making it part of their national laws. There is need for full implementation of these laws. There is need for the protection and rehabilitation of survivors, and the punishment of the traffickers and their collaborators.

No Nigerian girl can claim ignorance of the nature of ‘job’ available when travelling abroad without requisite qualifications. It is an open secret that most of them end up in brothels. Infact, families from some states in the Niger Delta sell all their possessions in order to send these girls abroad when their mates have ‘made it’ in foreign lands. Personally, I believe it is greed that is fuelling it, not poverty because of the huge sums of money these families dispense with when sending these girls on such deadly voyage.

The only way to stop sex trafficking is severe jail penalties for trafficking gang members and those who pay for prostituted sex. Jail terms of 10 years+ might convince those that's simply not worth it.

To Anabie Musa Kamara, your response is truly despicable. Nigeria has a population of 150 million plus millions more in the diaspora. This number is is far greater than any other African country making it the most populus black country on earth. So surely if you come across a group of black prostitutes the chances of them being Nigerian is far higher than the chances of the prostitute being from Guinneau Bissau or Gabon. Sex academies? Really?
In response to the post, I dont think any decent hard working individual in their right mind would volunterily decide to take up proscecution. In most cases these individuals are forced by circumstances, ie, poverty, or by individuals who deceive them, take them out of the country and then demand that they partake in this lifestyle to pay for the cost of bringing them abroad and threaten to harm their family back home if they don't concur. Hence Governments around the world should be tackling the factors that are responsible for people opting for this lifestyle, poverty and exploiters. Exploiters should be dealt with severly and jobs created. This is not to say that there arn't individuals who choose willingly to partake in prostitution rather than get a legal job.

To me the blame of sex trafficking in Africa or in Nigeria inparticular on parents and also on the government. It is the responsibilities of every parents to provide their children with all life essentials, failure to do that the child will find an alternitive to survive and from their the child will be exposed to the world, so anything can happen. However, the parent must be excused if you look at the kind of destitution that is tearing the lifes of the citizens. On the other hand, it is the duty of the government to ensure the safety and well being of the citizen, which can simply be achieved just by providing them with jobs security. In Nigeria the level of unemployment and lack of admission into high institutions is only increasing and people are seriouly oppressed that is why they easily get lured to the instigations of bad people. So i urge the government to do something quik to save the honour of our people.

Call them sex workers, human traffick victims, economic refugees or what have you? Africans, both male and female, will continue to leave or be trafficked out of their countries as long as their leaders continue to steal from the public till thus turning their compatriots into beggars in their own homelands. Africa is a cursed continent because of its rare breed of leaders whose stock in trade is thievery, dishonesty and evil.

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Well one would rather pretend to think these things are not happening. When issues like these keep on hunting our news headline it means somewhere along the line are suicities have failed us in one way or the other.
The issue of prostitution in present day africa or Nigeria for this mather can be blame on the state of economy most of our nations are facing. The youth of this countries a lameting in unemployment rate. When human trafficing and protitution of girls and women becomes common in some of our countries it shows us how vunerable the position of women is in africa as a whole. The only way we can brake this bariers is through educating, empowering, greating and giving upportunities to these Nation

It is said that we have strong and powerful Woman who can bring attention to this issue but nothing is done about it.I strongly believe that Her Majesty,Oprah ,Michelle Obama ,Hillary Clinton just to mention a few can help spread the awareness.
Meanwhile,by word of mouth we can also tell our rural folks never to release their daugthers and sons to people who promise to take them to the big cities for a better life.Our cities are already over populated for any promises of good life.And to all those SOLD OUT Africans in Europe and America who are not helping relatives BACK HOME.Wake up and invest in the education of your people.

To Elizabeth Kuranchie-Mensah,let me help u understand what is going on,A woman is used as a recruiter to go to the rural areas to get the young girls with all the great promises.The girl is then brought to the gang of men,they rape her for months and then put her out there to go make money for them.SHe is been so defied that she might as well do it for money because sex have become nothing..You must really sympathize with this kids.Advice your folks back home that is how we can help in our little way.99% of the young girls dont want to do it

I notice that most of the comments are coming from men,but shamefully enough we are the people paying for sex.If u have ever paid for sex ,point a finger at yourself

There appears to be more opportunities for trafficers in Africa than in some other parts of the world. My daughter in Africa has recently got divorced, due to lack of finances the children live with the father. Her 14 year old daughter was taken out of the country with a "modeling agency" without my daughter being consulted. Until this point my grand-daughter had never been left with strangers and when my daughter found out she contact the agency who told her to "butt out"! as it was nothing to do with her. Even though my grand-daughter arrived back home safe I feel that there are loop-holes between South Africa and USA which need to be filled or this kind of movement from country to country could so easily be used for trafficing more vulnerable children.

[Personal details removed by Moderator]Prostitution in the United States is a business of $13 billion dollars a year even though it is illegal except in certain counties in Nevada. Thirteen billion US dollars a year is bigger than the budget of more than 50% of African countries. The average prostitute in the US earns more money than a middle class working lady. Of course, they are not called prostitutes. They are called "adult service providers" - what a sophisticated and innocent name. In Germany, prostitution is a legal business; the only obligation is for the prostitute to pay tax. There is probably more prostitution going on in the USA or Germany than in all countries in Africa put together. In this respect, Nigerian is a holy land. I therefore do not agree with Jude.

Prostitution has always been linked with money. In a country like Nigeria where the government is making no effort to create jobs while the universities are churning out thousands of female graduates with no prospects for jobs and no unemployment benefit, prostitution becomes an economic option. Moreover, 1 out 4 Africans is a Nigerian; this may explain the reason for more Nigerian prostitutes at home and abroad. Religious morals are no longer barriers in certain parts of Nigeria and in many parts of the world; in the midst of economic difficulties with almost no alternatives, prostitution may become a necessary evil. The Nigerian government can help by providing unemployment benefit to the unemployed and should endeavor to create jobs. This will reduce prostitution. Moreover, the educational curriculum at both high school and universities should be streamlined to produce independent professionals who will quickly be self-employed instead of the traditional graduates who must wait for employment in a society where the government has no idea of how to create jobs. If Nigerian females can earn money through professional development as mentioned,they will want respect and avoid prostitution.

As I understand it, Nigeria is a member of OPEC, and is a major oil producer. That represents a lot of money flowing into the country. Yet your article describes Nigeria as a desperately poor country; where is all the oil money going? Shouldn't it be used by the Nigerian government for the benefit of the people? An oil rich country shouldn't have it's citizens living in poverty, and being made vulnerable to prostitution scams, should it? If it's being siphoned off by corruption in government, shouldn't the Nigerian people themselves rise up and revolt against the corruption?

African leaders have far more pressing priority then dealing with sex trafficking that does not threaten their holding of power for eternity.

Africa can indeed do more to combat this menace called sex trafficking. But we have to start with ourselves. These young girls that are ferried outside the country know quite well what they are going there to do so long they come back home smiling with foreign currencies.

l met a young girl who boldly told me she was going to Italy and when l asked her what she was going there to do, she said prostitution of course. Some parents wouldn't mind the trauma their children would be after being sexually used abroad. All they want is hard money

All I am saying is that greed is the root of this menace called sex trafficking. If we as individuals and as parents make our children know the implications of the friends they make and owning some properties we know they are not worth having, then the government will have less to do in combating this ugly menace

well Africa should combat sex trafficking because it is not a decent life and is not even accepted by god.

I know quite a good number of young women from my village who have travelled abroad and 'prospered' rather quickly. Whenever these women came back home to my native Cameroon, they had amazing tales of how easy life was overseas and how well the jobs paid. When I was younger these stories were easy to believe, but with time, I heard rumors of prostitution and everything began to make sense. My other relatives abroad who had good education were not making as much money as these other women who did not have the benefit of a high school education. In some instances, mothers and older sisters lure their daughters and sisters respectively,(I hear they get a share of the profit). Back in Cameroon, the countries that are considered lucrative for business are Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and some African countries like Gabon even South Africa. It is worthy of note that these women always hide behind some facade of 'business', that is what they are: business women. Some sex workers are actually recruited from the villages and taken to the big cities like Douala and Yaounde under the guise of babysitting or some other house job.
What the governments can do is try to restrict visas to applicants unless they prove their intent. This is not the ultimate solution, but every little helps. Those who are already in the business always try to recruit younger girls, so I am afraid it is turning into a vicious cycle. Laws should be passed and implemented against this vice if not it will keep eating into the society.

Hello, BBC
thanks for good issue to be taken for discusions, what I do agree is all of this problem is coming wherever the poverty is, this can take us to Authority that rulling state, they must cambat poverty, becuase none can lead to secrify by all your possablity.

I do not think human taffickink is related to the lack of job, because if we were to dig that up, we would find that most of the people who do this kind of immoral activity are rich.Those innocent girls, are forced to join it unconsciously, it means that somebody promises them an employment and they end up accepting because they do not know what is in store for them.The promoters are doing it to get money, but those people who are forced to do it, would not do it if the information was clearly displayed to them.